1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data-sharing system and a data-sharing method that are adapted to share a data file among a plurality of devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the advance of the communication technologies has been significant. For example, communications services including electronic-mail systems achieved on the basis of the Internet Protocol (IP) network and mobile phones achieved on wireless-communication systems have become indispensable for ordinary users for their daily life and business. Further, services including IP-telephone systems, IP-mobile-phone systems, and so forth that are achieved by using the IP network, as the conversation line, and technologies adapted to establish a TV-phone system and hold a TV conference have become also available.
Further, systems for sharing a data file among devices connected to one another via a network, as is the case with the above-described examples, have been discussed. For example, data-file transmission-and-reception systems configured to share a data file accumulated on a file server among at least two devices have been proposed. An example of the above-described data-file transmission-and-reception systems is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-351731 (paragraphs [0023] to [0036] and FIG. 5). According to the above-described example, data transfer is performed between a client terminal and a File-Transfer-Protocol (FTP) server by using a program running on a Web server, the program relating to Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). Subsequently, even though the client terminal does not include an FTP client software program, a data file can be transmitted and/or received between the client terminal and the FTP server by performing a drag-and-drop operation through the client terminal.